Miami Law News Headlines: November 2012

(Posted: 11-26-12) On November 3, students in Miami Law's Immigration Clinic argued for halting deportations to post-earthquake Haiti during a formal working meeting called by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. State Department also attended the meeting.

(Posted: 11-26-12) The ABA's International Law Section fall meeting is one of the world's largest international gatherings for lawyers with practice or interest in international legal issues. The hot topic at this year's meeting – held in October in Miami Beach, with more than 10 sessions over four days – was international arbitration.

(Posted: 11-20-12) Minutes after the supermodel Christy Turlington Burns gave birth to her daughter, Grace, a decade ago, her placenta had to be extracted from the wall of her uterus, and she began hemorrhaging. It was a crisis – a dangerous and painful one – but a quick medical response averted a tragedy. Around the world, such a response is unavailable to the thousands of women who suffer similar complications every year, and many of them die.

(Posted: 11-19-12) Of the five competitions they have competed in this fall, members of the Charles C. Papy, Jr. Moot Court Board have advanced past preliminary rounds and into semi-final rounds on four occasions. The teams are ready to capture more trophies in the spring.

(Posted: 11-19-12) Appearing in court is often an ordeal even for the hardiest of souls, regardless of the case's nature. When children are involved, the hearings became vastly more delicate and complex, especially for the little ones themselves.

(Posted: 11-19-12) The legacy of Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, was at the heart of an address at Miami Law by Ingrid Wuerth, a law professor and Director of the International Legal Studies Program at Vanderbilt Law School. The event was the third in a series of lectures presented this semester by the International Graduate Law Programs.

(Posted: 11-12-12) Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez, a Miami Law alumnus, was honored with the CEPS Lawyers in Leadership Award by Miami Law's Center for Ethics and Public Service. The award recognizes leading members of the Florida bar and bench who are distinguished by their dedication to public citizenship and leadership.

(Posted: 11-12-12) Tina Portuondo, director of the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning and the Heckerling Graduate Program in Estate Planning, has been elected as an honorary fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. She has also been asked to serve on the organization's programming committee.

(Posted: 11-12-12) Third-year law student Christine Job, the President of the Student Bar Association, is the first recipient of the Joseph H. Bogosian Student Leadership Award, given to a law student who exemplifies leadership and service to the School of Law.

(Posted: 11-12-12) Nataly Masica, a second-year Miami Law student from Maryland, spent the summer working in the pro bono division of the firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington D.C., where she was lucky enough to take on four cases.

(Posted: 11-12-12) Determined to attend the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair in Washington D.C., 14 Miami Law students, accompanied by faculty members and Dean Patricia D. White, braved the potential elements in late October just three days before Hurricane Sandy was set to make landfall on the east coast.

(Posted: 11-05-12) Although Florida law requires that judicial races in Florida be nonpartisan, three Florida Supreme Court justices who are on the ballot this year are opposed by conservatives who have accused the judges of showing a liberal bent in some of their decisions.

(Posted: 11-05-12) Miami Law's Professor Bernard H. Oxman, a renowned expert on laws that address oceans and maritime boundaries, was the moderator of a panel discussion on Nov. 1 at New York's Columbia Law School on "International Law and the South China Sea." All missions to the United Nations were invited to attend.

(Posted: 11-05-12) A crowd of University of Miami alumni got a treat during Homecoming weekend as Patricia D. White, Dean of Miami Law, gave a speech about the state of legal education not just here at Miami Law but across the nation and the world.

(Posted: 11-05-12) The rights of children were at the center of a presentation by Miami Law Professor Kele Stewart last week in the law library, the second in a series of lectures organized this semester by the International Graduate Law Programs.

(Posted: 11-05-12) A group of University of Miami Law Review members traveled to Orlando for the Middle District of Florida's 50th Anniversary Symposium to present case notes to federal judges and lawyers from the district. Third-year students Erika Concetta Pagano, Brian Stewart, Sam Wardle and Nicholas Williams – along with Emily Horowitz, former Editor-in-Chief of the University of Miami Law Review and a Post-Graduate Student Service Fellow – took part.

(Posted: 11-02-12) With a gathering of professors, practitioners of law and colleagues from far and wide as her audience, Miami Law Dean Patricia D. White last week named three of her most eminent faculty members as Dean's Distinguished Scholars for the Profession.